I’m sure at this point most of us have seen or heard of GIRLS on HBO. Since the individuals involved in a large portion of the writing and production of the show are of the Millennial generation, it seems to me that they are taking on some interesting experiments with what it means to have a show and what it takes to achieve a sort of “cult following” in the 21st century.
First of all, GIRLS is on Twitter. I have been following them since day one and they’re one of the shows that’s all about live-tweeting during the episode, tossing out random quotes from characters, re-tweeting follower shout-outs, etc. American Horror Story does this too, among many others, and I think it’s an interesting idea as a multimedia component to producing because you are essentially having a live discussion with the Internet while getting immediate feedback about your work. Now I have noticed they’re on to something else: a show soundtrack.
If you click here, you’ll notice via iTunes that Girls has what seems to be its second soundtrack for its show, featuring songs from the episodes. (The show has 3 seasons, but I’m guessing they came up with the idea for this in season 2.) The third season debuted at the beginning of this month, and as the season progresses it seems as though after you’ve purchased the album you “unlock” songs in the soundtrack for downloading as the show goes along. I was really skeptical at first but after looking through the song list, I realized that even though I have the new Vampire Weekend album (and all their albums), I don’t have the song from this album, meaning they are partnering with artists to get special tracks either before they’re released by the artist or composed specifically for the show, which is kind of cool. I have only unlocked the Jenny Lewis song so far, but it’s totally rad.
Just wanted to showcase this interesting multimedia component to get us thinking about creative ways to showcase our work as well as garner involvement from fellow artists. What do you think? And in case you’re not familiar with the show, there’s a preview below.
LOOOOVE the Jenny Lewis song! She’s had so many starts and stops since Rilo Kiley, and it has all been decent, but I think this is probably my favorite stuff. It kinda harkens back to the more fun and energetic parts of Rilo Kiley. Anyway, enough about that.
I am not sure have a show soundtrack is that new (Hello 90’s teen dramas!), but the manner in which they release the songs is new. I think the songs they play at the end of Girls have become an anticipated part of the show because the curators have proven they have good taste. However, most of these songs are brand new and unreleased until the show airs. I do get excited to see what song will be at the end because most have been pretty awesome.
They whole “unlocking” thing seems a little hokey and gimmicky though. People can’t get enough of new words for familiar activities, as though giving it a new name will reinvigorate the activity. Isn’t it just going and purchasing a song off itunes? Haven’t we been “unlocking” things all along when we purchase stuff? And isn’t this just cross marketing?
Yeah definitely and it kind of feels like a gimmicky hand-shake between them and Apple. I think the anticipation for the songs (just like you said, because the curators have proven their good taste) works well enough, and I wonder if the soundtrack idea is valuable because in the end it feels like “here’s a show, and here we’re going to hold your hand and give you music too!” Rather than just exposing people to the music and letting them decide or discover on their own instead. And I like the latter idea more in the sense that then people explore more works from each artist, maybe the money goes directly to them instead of Apple, etc. And besides Apple, are the curators at GIRLS getting a cut too for facilitating? It’s a little corporate and strange for my tastes but there are probably better ways it could be done. It’s an interesting concept.
I’m also not even sure the whole “unlocking” process actually works that way, since on the iTunes album it has a release date for February 11th, which might be around the wrap up of the show, so we’ll see. But yeah I love the song! #JennyLewisforGirlFestinPortland2014!
Soundtracks are just another way to connect with your audience, and depending on how tapped into your audience you are it can be an effective marketing tool. As Jarrett said above the producers of GIRLS seems to be more on the angle that they “get” it and the music choices that they make and put out there are now something to be anticipated.
But I think that this can go deeper, into the use of music in our pieces. A great music choice can take a shot or a scene and make it been that it could have been with something else chosen. What happens then is that later on when someone listens to that song they could be thinking of that scene. For example take “Flight of the Valkyries” whenever I hear that I see helicopters from Apocalypse Now.